Pope Leo XIV warned that rapid advances in artificial intelligence reflect the biblical story of the “Tower of Babel” on Monday, May 25.
The Head of the Catholic Church publishes his first encyclical titled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Latin for magnificent humanity) in which he argues that AI “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision” and criticizes the immense power held by a handful of private technology companies.
The reference to the Tower of Babel is a famous biblical story from the Book of Genesis (Genesis 11:1-9), which describes the origins of several human languages.
History describes that all of humanity originally spoke a single common language. When people began to migrate eastward, they settled in the land of Shinar (ancient Babylon) and decided to build a huge city and a tower “that would reach to the heavens.”
The purpose of building the huge city was to make a name for themselves and prevent them from being scattered across the Earth.
God realized that man’s unity and ambitions would cause pride and arrogance. To prevent this from happening, God confused their languages so that they could not communicate with each other. Since they could not communicate, they abandoned the construction of the tower.
Pope warned that without ethical barriers, AI can have a similar impact on humanity, causing social distrust, unemployment, etc.
The Pope said: “A singular and totalizing technological culture risks becoming a new form of oppression,” echoing modern theological interpretations that see the original story of Babel as a liberation from forced uniformity.
According to the Pope, international regulation is necessary to ensure that AI does not concentrate powers in a way that dehumanizes people. He stressed that technology must be at the service of fraternity and not control it. Pope Leo highlighted the possibility of falling into chaos without humility.
